Joseph P. Frary ’61 died on July 11, 2013, in Manila, Phillippines.
(The following was provided by the Daily Bulldog on July 13, 2013:)
Joseph Palmer Frary ’61, at right, with his brother John Frary.
MANILA, Philippines – Joseph Palmer Frary, 72, a resident of Baguio City in the Philippines, died on July 11, 2013 at St. Luke’s Hospital in Manila. Over the years he survived a brain tumor, melanoma, and colon cancer. Liver cancer proved too much for him.
The attached picture, at right, shows him with his brother reminiscing about an incident in 1945 when John chopped his thumb half off. There was no malice or aggression in the act. John just had a very natural curiosity about the effects of hatchets on thumbs.
Joseph was born in Farmington, Maine, on Aug. 26, 1939, the son of George Hubert and Margaret Palmer Frary. He graduated from Farmington High School and Bowdoin College, later earning his clerical credentials from the Episcopalian General Theological Seminary in New York City and a Ph.D. from Fordham University.
After doing parish work in Patterson, N.J. and the Church of the Transfiguration in New York City he entered the Episcopalian monastery of St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge, Mass. His subsequent career as a professor of theology, philosophy, and Greek took him to the Solomon Islands, South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. He taught at the St. Andrews Theological Seminary in Manila until retirement and continued on there without pay with part-time priestly and professorial duties until his final illness.
Joseph is survived by his younger brother John of Farmington, his younger sister Carolyn Roffler of North Yarmouth, his older sister Ann Kim of Farmington his niece Joan Romel of Chapel Hill, N.C., and his nephew Anthony Kim of Portland, Ore. He appears on the seminary facebook (https://www.facebook.com/StAndrewsTheologicalSeminary), the only clergyman with a beard.
Anthony Kim remarked in an e-mail: “Uncle Joe possessed an inordinate amount of poise and aplomb.” This was so, and it allowed him to go through Farmington High School attired in jacket and tie on a daily basis without causing a scandal. When he figured he was old enough to get away with it he acquired a top hat, which he wore on appropriate occasions like the opening nights of the Portland Symphony or Ballet.
In the 1980s Joseph Frary purchased a property in Farmington jointly with his older sister and brother along with an elegant condominium on Spring Street in Portland. After this he returned to Maine every April or May, then went back to the Philippines in October. He was very fond of Maine and his old home town, and their people. For a long time it was uncertain where he would settle permanently. He decided on the Philippines in 2004 and never returned.
Joseph had a great fondness for the Filipinos and a deep curiosity about the country’s strange political life. His students, former students, colleagues, and house-keeper were deeply attentive and caring in his final illness, confirming his fondness for them.
During his time back in Farmington, Joseph served as president of the Farmington Area Alumni Association and was a member of the Garden Club. He enjoyed the amenities, beauties and atmosphere of Portland despite what he regarded as its “goofy politics.”
Joseph Fray had a good and useful life. He endured a difficult death with composure and fortitude. His estate will fund a scholarship for seminary students. His remains will be buried at St. Andrews Seminary in Manila under the epitaph: “I lie here under protest but in the hope of eternal resurrection.”